Playtime is serious business for young children, just ask any child how important they view play.
The implications however go beyond just fun and games. According to research, play helps preschoolers learn to solve problems, get along with others, express their creativity and so much more.
This is especially important during their critical developmental years, as learning is best stimulated by tapping into a child’s natural urge to play.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) has in recent years placed greater emphasis on 21st-century skills such as critical and inventive thinking and communication, collaboration, and information skills among others. These are actively being implemented in mainstream schools’ curriculum.
Research however indicates that such skills are best nurtured during the preschool years.
“For children to enjoy an enriching childhood, it is essential for them to be given sufficient time to discover both the world and themselves in a fun and age-appropriate way,” Brian Caswell, Dean of Research & Programme Development at MindChamps, explains.
Caswell goes on to elaborate, “If we deny children the time to play, we stifle their ability to learn later in life by inhibiting the development of essential neural networks related to association, problem-solving and even the recognition of ’cause and effect’.”
This is precisely the reason more and more parents spend time and effort to find a preschool that offers that delicate balance between honing their child’s creativity and innovation, play, and school readiness for the big transition to primary school.
Known for its research-based 21st-century methodology, early learning organisation MindChamps has taken playtime even further by creating an innovative playground that greatly enhances learning through play.
Learning Through Play Is The Way To Go
1. Crafted Play™ Helps Children Develop Skills For The Future
Play is a continuous process of trial and error where children make and correct mistakes in a fun and non-threatening environment.
MindChamps embraces this, so instead of teaching through rote, memorisation or means to a correct answer, MindChamps PreSchool has designed fun, hands-on, trial-and-error play activities to promote a concrete understanding of a concept – this is what is known as Crafted Play™.
MindChamps’ Crafted Play™ activities are designed to allow children the latitude to explore, experience, experiment and enjoy themselves with just enough structure to lead towards a particular learning outcome.
Crafted Play™ is also included in every key learning area in the preschool – from literacy to numeracy to age-appropriate scientific concepts and even social / communication skills.
Through Crafted Play™, children attending the preschool will develop essential skills, confidence and a positive emotional connection with learning, as a prelude to the 21st-century skills that are becoming increasingly important in their lives.
2. Innovative Indoor Playground That Optimise Learning
Taking the Crafted Play™ concept a leap further, the early learning organisation has created MindScape® @ MindChamps – an innovative indoor playground that optimises learning by bringing together the elements of Crafted Play™.
As MindScape® will be introduced for the very first time in MindChamps’ newly expanded centres in Toa Payoh and Woodlands, pre-schoolers in these centres will be the first to experience this innovative indoor playground. There will be a whole range of fun activities from which they can learn many important skills. From an obstacle course to an indoor cliff hanger, pre-schoolers will get to navigate through various activities that will unleash their creative potential and see things from different perspectives.
As research states, when it comes to a child’s formative years, there can never be enough emphasis on the necessity for play. And with play being one of the key ways in which children learn and develop, MindScape® is set to bring play time to a whole new level.
3. The Preschool Dilemma
When it comes to choosing a preschool, parents are under a lot of pressure these days to choose what they believe is the best option for their child.
Especially because research shows that a kid’s brain creates over 1 million new neural connections every second and that the basis of how a child learns is formed throughout their preschool years.
When you consider that a child will have spent over 10,000 hours in a preschool by the time they graduate, this becomes even more significant.
With this in mind, and in order to relieve parents’ worry, MindChamps is offering parents and their preschoolers the option to test out their school with no strings attached!
Parents in Singapore can sign up for their complimentary Champion Class and let their children enjoy a full, immersive experience at MindChamps PreSchool for a week.
This is an excellent opportunity to decide if the fit is right.
Do take note that limited places are available, and this is for new parents only. Terms and conditions apply.
If you decide on signing up with MindChamps, you can save more than $3,000 plus redeem a Champion Kit worth $100 at the newly expanded campus as well as a complimentary trial class at any one of the following programmes:
- Natural Literacy (3 years old, worth $83 per lesson)
- MindChamps Reading (4 to 7 years old, worth $83 per lesson)
- Champion Communications – Preparatory Level (4 to 6 years old) (Worth $60 per lesson)
“It is through play that a child learns to make sense of the world and create the solid foundations of creativity and future social and intellectual development,” sums up Caswell, Dean of Research & Programme Development at MindChamps.
As you can see, children learn best through exploration and play, and that is what MindChamps’ 21st-century education model offers.
Visit their Woodlands or Toa Payoh branch websites to book your complimentary class, without obligations, to experience this first hand.
References:
- https://www.familylives.org.uk/advice/early-years-development/learning-and-play/why-play-matters/
- https://www.moe.gov.sg/education-in-sg/21st-century-competencies